Home Depot said Tuesday it had “received confirmation” that an Okotoks employee tested positive for COVID-19.
“The associate is in quarantine and they have not been at work since May 1,” said Paul Berto, director of corporate communications for Home Depot, in a statement to Global News.
The company said it cares about supporting the affected individual through the situation.
Home Depot said it is working closely with and following the guidance of Alberta Health Services for the health and safety of associates and customers.
“We’re taking this very seriously and given our scale and size, we’ve been preparing for something like this. We’ve had a team in place for many weeks to look at possible COVID-19 scenarios from every angle, including this one,” Berto said.
“We’ve taken additional steps to clean and disinfect the store with virucidal cleaner and will continue disinfecting high-touch and high-traffic areas several times a day.”
Home Depot said it continues to enforce physical distancing within stores, adding it increased disinfecting efforts and posted signs about preventative actions.
“We also have paid leave and time-off policies in place to protect associates who are directly or indirectly impacted by COVID-19,” Berto said.
Alberta Health said it will not comment on specific cases that are not outbreaks.
“AHS would take immediate action for any confirmed case and anyone at risk would be contacted,” said Tom McMillan, assistant director of communications with Alberta Health.